The small town of Mead, Nebraska, population 500, was concerned when an ethanol plant moved in next door over a decade ago. Their concern proved precient. The plant owned by AltEn LLC became a dumping ground for pesticide coated seed corn manufactered by major ariculture chemical companies like Monsanto, Syngenta and Corteva. AltEn advertised itself as a "green recycling" center. The companies could pay a fee to unload unwanted seeds coated with a variety of fungicides and insecticides. The service proved popular and the plant became inundated with a witches brew of toxic chemicals that spread to the surrounding environment. AltEn lagoons are awash in millions of gallons of pesticide-laden wastewater and 84,000m pounds of distillers grains byproduct sit in piles around the plant. State tests on the water and the byproduct show staggeringly high levels of several pesticides associated with a range of health problems for people and wildlife according reporting by UK's Guardian newspaper. Fish die-offs have been reported downstream from the plant, honeybee colonies have been decimated and there are instances of sick geese and other birds. disoriented dogs and unexplained ailments in humans. Incredibly, the company had also distributed "green mash"--a toxic waste product-- to area farmers for spreading across fields as a “soil conditioner”. [photo credit: C. Gillam]The state governor nor the state department of environment and energy would respond to the Guardian's request for comment on the situation. The company also refused to comment. A state senator, Carol Blood, told the press, “Based on the scale of the issue … it is an environmental catastrophe,” After the media began reporting the widespread poisoning, regulators finally acted to shut the plant down.
The road to the plant's closure is a familiar one in cases of toxic industrial pollution. A company called E3 Biofuels originally sold the plant to local residents as "closed loop" system in which 30,000 head of cattle would have their waste processed for methane to be burned in the plant as fuel and as fertilzer for nearby corn fields. The wet cake produced as a by-product of distillation could be fed to the cattle, a common process. But just after a few months of operation E3 Biofuels filed for bankruptcy in 2007. AltEn bought the plant and told regulators it would use corn as a fuel. Regulators found out in 2015 that the company was actually using treated seeds, only one of two plants in the United States to do so. Tests run by the EPA on the wet cake and wastewater showed “very high levels of pesticide residues”, including neonicotinoids, which are known neurotoxins. The company racked up numerous regulatory violations, but it was not closed until February of this year. Only days after the shutdown, a pipe attached to a 4million gallon digester tank broke, washing toxins into waterways and spreading them at least 4.5 miles away, according to regulators. In May, another leak was discovered in a pipe adjacent to a wastewater lagoon reports the Guardian.
Researchers from the University of Nebraska and Creighton University are now launching a 10-year study of the impacts on human and environmental health. Locals appreciate the attention they are finally getting from authorities but think it is rather late. Residents of Mead are worried the beef cattle next to the plant may be contaminated as well as their soil and water. Blood, as does US Person, thinks many cancers in rural America can be traced to environmental pollution. In her home town of Hastings, NE, cancers developed by residents were linked to chemicals in the soil and water; the area was designated a Superfund site. “There is a lot of stuff like this that goes on in a lot of these small towns,” Blood told reporters, “There are more Meads out there.” Amen.